Modeling Dugong Effects on Seagrass Carbon Storage in Bahrain

Supplementary file 3_Integrating megafauna into blue carbon strategies is a document detailing a modeling study on dugong impacts. The research applies an animal-driven carbon-nutrient cycling model to Halodule seagrass beds in Bahrain, estimating effects on productivity and sediment carbon. The document was authored by Oswald J. Schmitz and last updated on 2026-05-26.

Use Cases

• Parameterizing animal-ecosystem interaction models based on the described carbon-nutrient cycling framework.
• Estimating blue carbon contributions for nationally determined contributions (NDCs) based on the inclusion of megafauna functional roles.
• Assessing the climate mitigation value of seagrass conservation strategies based on the modeled effects of dugong aggregations.

Strengths

• Model outputs are validated against literature-based and field measurements for net primary production, net ecosystem carbon balance, and sediment carbon stocks.
• Quantifies dugong effects with specific multipliers: seagrass NPP and NECB enhanced by 2.4 times on average, sediment carbon stocks by 2.63 times.
• Provides concrete carbon estimates for a 145 km² area: an additional 7.9 x10^7 kg C y^-1 captured and 9.1 x10^8 kg C stored.

Limitations

• The dataset is a 1017.7 KB DOCX file; the underlying model data, parameters, or code are not explicitly listed as separate files.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the document text after download.
• The model is parameterized for a specific location (Halodule seagrass beds of Bahrain); generalizability to other regions is uncertain.

Provenance

Source

Oswald J. Schmitz via figshare

Collection Method

General animal-driven carbon-nutrient cycling model parameterized with literature data and validated with field measurements.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-26 04:37:35; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Halodule seagrass beds of Bahrain